The Massive Toad Who Liked To Eat Dinosaurs For Breakfast

Scientists working in Madagascar have found what may be the largest frog that ever lived.

The frog, dubbed Beelzebufo, resembles the family of horned toads that are now unique to South America. But, at more than 40 centimetres in length, it would have been more than twice the size of its nearest living relative.

Beelzebufo would have weighed around four kilograms with a squat body and a huge head. These features are characteristic of horned toads of the ceratophryine family, also known as "Pac-man frogs" because of their large mouths.

Evans says that the frog would have been the size of a slightly squashed beach-ball. "If it shared the aggressive temperament and 'sit-and-wait' ambush tactics of living horned toads, it would have been a formidable predator," she says, adding that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs.